How to Stay Relevant and Current in Changing Times

It seems one of the biggest challenges for leaders today is how to remain current and relevant in such changing times.

More than 3,000 books are published daily (and I am not talking electronic books), and there are more text messages sent and received on a daily basis than there are people on the planet!

Our access to information via Google and other online sources is enormous. How do you stay relevant with so much information available to you?

It’s not the information age; it’s the age of over information!

To stay current and relevant today you need to educate yourself, energize your skills, embrace technology and engage in social media. Do you want people to pay attention to your company, your team and your results – use these strategies to attract and keep attention on what matters.

Just like in school where every year you got an annual report card as a snapshot of where you were at, this month decide to measure how relevant are you in your organization?

Leaders today need to focus on four areas to stay relevant in such dynamic times.

Educate Yourself

Is your personal education adding value to your conversations each day and managing your team? If not, what actions do you need to take to increase your education? Can you attend industry event and conferences? Can you complete online webinars and programs to bridge any gaps in your learning? Is it time to invest in watching TED talks of thought leaders in your area? Can you hire a mentor to provide an accelerated learning process?  It’s up to you… not your boss or your clients to tell you. If you want to add value to your team, your industry and yourself – get educated.

Energize Skills

When was the last time you did a personal skills audit? Often it isn’t until leaders want to make a change of job or industry that they stop to update their resume. If you want to say truly relevant in your organization choose to accelerate this process and allocate time to a review. What one skill are you good at that would impact your business the most? Focus your attention on getting even better at that one skill and accelerate your results – get energized.

Embrace Technology

Are you across the latest time-saving technologies for your everyday activities? Have you found a cell phone that can help you achieve the demands of your communications needs?  Is your computer system helping you achieve the results you want … or … are you putting up with slow machines, outdated equipment, and redundant applications?  Challenge yourself to embrace the technologies that are most relevant for you and your clients. This may mean upgrading some areas of your technology, investigating the latest apps and spending time and money in new systems.  If you want to amplify your message using platforms including social media and apps – start embracing.

Engage Social Media

According to Fast Company magazine, 78.6% of sales people using social media to sell outperformed those who weren’t using social media. They went on to say when it came to exceeding sales quota (by more than 10%); social media users were 23% more successful than their non-social media peers.

Social media is not a passing fab.

You don’t have to participate on every platform however now is the time to engage in conversation with your clients on the platforms most suitable for them. At a minimum every professional needs a LinkedIn profile (consider it your own personal website). How current is your photo? Your skills listed, your experiences – spend time today updating it.  Do your clients hang out on Facebook? Is your business page regularly providing value to your readers to advance your message? Are you participating in conversations on Twitter with your community. Find the platform most beneficial for you and your clients and advance your conversations using this too – get engaged!

What are your ideas on how you can stay relevant in such changing times? Share your ideas with us here on our blog.